Asbestos Suspected In Ceilings Of 3 Schools In Bethlehem District

August 31, 1985|by TOM SCHROEDER, The Morning Call

Laboratory tests indicate that asbestos is probably present in some ceiling surfaces in three Bethlehem public schools. The city's top health official said the condition presents no immediate health hazard.

However, the Bethlehem Area School District, with state approval to treat the situation as an emergency, has given an Allentown firm a $28,000 contract to encapsulate the suspicious areas in the Lincoln and Marvine schools and Broughal Middle School.

District Superintendent Robert L. LaFrankie said Acoustical Spray Insulators will set to work immediately. LaFrankie expects the remedial steps will be completed without jeopardizing the Wednesday opening of classes. He said an effort will be made to contact parents of children and employees assigned to the affected buildings to notify them of the facts. The superintendent said they will be told "there is no health risk, nor has there been."

Dr. LaFrankie said test samples indicate the possible presence of asbestos, a widely regarded health hazard, in quantities ranging from 1 to 12 percent. The samples are from a coating material that was sprayed onto the ceilings.

Lincoln, a building where about 350 children are enrolled, appears to have the largest area under suspicion. The affected portion includes 12 classrooms in the newer wing that was built in 1957, a lobby, and one corridor. The problem at Marvine, a school expecting about 330 students next week, is apparently confined to Room 14, a conference room reportedly used only occasionally. The focus at Broughal, which had an enrollment of about 485 last year, is on an art room and a music room. Both rooms have dome ceilings.

Although the district has had testing for asbestos going back to 1978, LaFrankie said it turned last year to a consultant, D'Huy Engineering of Bethlehem, to supervise a new comprehensive testing program, one that has been going on for the last eight months.

Gerard D'Huy said initial testing of samples from Lincoln done at commercial laboratories showed "discrepancies." Samples were then sent to a state laboratory and, later, to two independent laboratories which confirmed the suspected asbestos content in the ceiling material.

D'Huy said his firm recommends encapsulation, a process in which two coats of sealant will be sprayed on, followed by the application of an acoustical finish. He said his survey showed the ceilings are in very good condition - not flaking or loose. "It is not being released into the atmosphere," he said.

Glen Cooper, the city's health director, said the original textured coating containing the suspected asbestos fibers "has not,in my opinion, released fibers into the air." He said the district's remedial action is being taken as a "preventive measure" because such ceilings begin to break down over the years.

"This is not being done to correct a health hazard, but rather, it is being done to address a problem down the road," according to Cooper. He said the district could wait to deal with the situation, but he said it is "very laudable" that officials are moving immediately "to make everyone feel at ease."

He said it is difficult to quantify the potential health risk. He said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has guidelines which assign a numerical risk factor to such conditions as the percent of suspected asbestos, the amount of activity in the room, and the condition of the material in which asbestos is present.

He concurred with D'Huy that the ceilings "are not in poor condition," or in a condition where a low percentage of asbestos could be a problem now.

LaFrankie said the district normally would have to advertise for bids, with school board approval, to let a contract of the size required to deal with the asbestos threat. In this case, he said the state Department of Education approved the district's request to seek emergency quotes from firms capable of encapsulating the ceilings.

The superintendent said "discrepancies" revealed in testing programs are "distressing" to school administrators. He said earlier tests at Broughal, for example, showed no asbestos, and now two retests show a level greater than 10 percent. "It's distressing that we have to run four or five tests to prove who's right on the test results," he declared.

Bethlehem went through a scare in the fall of 1983 when a test showed a high level of asbestos in an all-purpose room at Donegan School. But retesting later disclosedthe first test was in error and that no asbestos was present in the ceiling coating.

No air sampling was done in the areas tested this year, and Cooper said he would not recommend that it be done. "In my opinion, air sampling is very unreliable. It is not of any real benefit. Even with the sampling of material, three different labs could get you three different results. Testing of asbestos is not a well-defined science," he said.

On another health topic, LaFrankie said the state has tested with negative results for the presence of radon, a radioactive gas, in Donegan. The school is on a hillside overlooking the 1200 block of E. 4th Street.

The superintendent said an instrument was left behind to monitor the atmosphere and that it will be checked in six months. He said district officials are still considering the possibility of launching a wider radon testing program.